Jaap Van Zweden
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Arts & Entertainment
Surprise Report: Is Jaap Van Zweden Bound for New York?
Big Apple paper says he's one of two leading candidates for NY Philharmonic post.
Arts & Entertainment
NY Times: Jaap Mentioned in Search for New Conductor at New York Philharmonic
Van Zweden's DSO contract runs through 2018-'19; New York job opens up in 2017.
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Does Van Zweden’s Exhilarating Beethoven Remain on the Mountaintop Too Long?
Thursday night, for the second time in less than a month, the Dallas Symphony and music director Jaap van Zweden took on an all-Beethoven program Thursday evening at Meyerson Symphony Center. Beethoven remains one of the few composers deemed worthy of an entire evening devoted to his works, and this program proved why and how. Van Zweden opened with the ear-grabbing introductory exclamation of the Egmont Overture, offering the dense intensity he characteristically brings to Beethoven. Within the context of this grand but relatively short, one-movement work, rife with struggle and passion and ecstasy, Van Zweden’s approach made perfect sense, and gave the evening plenty of momentum.
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Why Van Zweden’s Double Bill of Meaty Beethoven Proved Too Rich for a Single Night
The best laid plans went astray for the Dallas Symphony on Wednesday when pianist Jeffrey Kahane, scheduled to perform Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto at the opening of the Dallas Symphony’s 2010-11 classical subscription series on Thursday, cancelled because of illness. With barely twenty-four hours to rebuild and orchestra program—to be repeated Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center—music director Jaap van Zweden did the right thing, and subbed in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, which he and the orchestra had performed at the Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado in June. No reasonable music lover can really object to the presence of one of the most beloved musical works of all time on what had already been billed as an all-Beethoven program; indeed, concert goers on Thursday night literally roared with approval of the performance, which also included, as originally scheduled, Beethoven’s Third Symphony.
